Oh, The Irony
by MizDenton
Summary: What if....? Bobby 'Iceman' Drake is betrayed by another student at The Xavier School and nearly pays with his life.
1. Notes and Acknowledgements

**Title: **Oh, The Irony  
**  
Author: **Amy Denton  
**  
Summary: **What if...? Bobby 'The Iceman' Drake is betrayed by another student at The Xavier School and nearly pays with his life.  
**  
Rating: **PG-13. Some mild violence at the end of the story.  
**  
Archive: **Yes, please. Just tell me where it's going.**  
  
Notes: **This is a story that started as an image and grew from that. All the medical information contained in this story has come from the websites I will list at the end of the story. The portable oxygen machine Jean uses in this story is a real machine used by the U.S. Coast Guard and search and rescue groups. The information on the machine will be listed at the end of the story as well.   
**  
Acknowledgements: **I want to thank my beta reader Sunshine for reading and asking 'What happens next?' Sunshine also gets a big THANKS for giving Kurt his words of wisdom. (Although if any of the German phrases are wrong, yell at me, not her) I also want to thank my second beta reader Julie for making sure I hadn't wandered from the plot too much. And, finally, I want to thank Stan Lee for creating The X-Men and Brian Singer and everyone connected with the movies for giving us a such a great world to play in.   
**  
Disclaimer:** The characters mentioned herein, with the exception of Micah Wislow and Jonathan, belong to Marvel Productions and this story in no way is an attempt to infringe on the copyright. This is story is written for the enjoyment of the fans. I will return the characters once I'm done with them. (Although, with Scott, I'd have to think about returning him. ;-) I'm poor, please don't sue me.   
  
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	2. Chapter 1

  
It was the easiest thing in the world to say 'Sure, no problem' but by saying that Bobby Drake bought more trouble than he ever thought possible.   
  
"Where you going?" Rogue asked Bobby when she saw him pulling on a jacket and hat.  
  
"Gonna run into New Salem and pick up the newest comic books for one of the newer kids." Bobby replied.   
  
"Using what for transportation?"   
  
"Cook is going to visit her sister in Croton-on-the-Hudson and she's going to drop me in town. I'll call for a lift back." Bobby kissed Rogue on the cheek and headed for the kitchen.   
  
************************  
  
Night fell and with it the temperature. But Bobby had yet to call asking for a ride back.   
  
Rogue did her best not to worry but with dinner rapidly approaching and no Bobby,she could stand it no longer. She left the other students watching tv and went to find Professor Xavier. There was this nagging feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. Bobby was in trouble and needed help.   
  
"Professor Xavier?" Rogue asked, finding him in the library.  
  
"Yes, Rogue?" Professor Xavier, looking all for the world likes someone's grandfather, paused in his reading.   
  
"Bobby hasn't come back yet and it's getting dark."  
  
"When did he leave?"  
  
"Around three, he should've been back by now." Rogue opened her mind up completely so that the Professor could understand how deeply worried she was.   
  
"Do you think he's in trouble?"   
  
Rogue nodded. "I can't shake the feeling that something's gone really wrong."  
  
"All right. I'll go look for him. You wait here and when I find him, I'll send for you." Professor Xavier rolled away, headed for the one place that could tell him exactly where Bobby was.   
  
*******************************  
  
Professor Xavier did not send for Rogue when he found Bobby, he sent for the other adults, the X-Men, at the school, instead. Rogue watched as one by one Scott, Storm, Jean and, finally, Logan disappeared and then, the rumble of the X-Jet's engines could be heard. Rogue appetite vanished and she left the dinning room without touching dinner.   
  
Professor Xavier had located Bobby 75 miles to the north on an abandoned farm, whether in the barn, one of the outbuildings or even the old farmhouse, Bobby's mutant signature simply wasn't strong enough to pinpoint exactly where.   
  
Upon landing, the four adults split up to search the abandoned barn and outbuildings. Jean and Logan headed for the barn while Scott and Storm headed towards the smaller outbuildings. The temperature, already in the mid-30's and dropping quickly, made finding Bobby as quickly as possible all the more urgent.   
  
The dilapidated barn still clung to its basic form even as it fought a losing battle with gravity. The first casualty, the sagging overhead hay loft that once had been used to feed the animals stabled in the six stalls the barn held. A wide aisle, wide enough for a large cart and a team of horses separated the stalls with three on each side of the aisle. Towards the front of the barn, a short hallway leading to what had been a small tack room branched off from the first stall on the left. In its time, the barn had probably held all manner of beasts from horses to oxen and then some. Now, all it held was the faint smell of old hay and decaying wood and, possibly, the object of their search.  
  
"Bobby!" Jean shouted into the darkness, her words coming out as steam in the frigid night air. Silence was her answer. She flipped on her flashlight and flashed it around the empty barn but saw nothing. She closed her eyes for a moment in an attempt to find him psychically but nothing leapt out at her.  
  
"I'll go look in the tackroom." she said to Logan. "You start on the stables then we'll meet and decided what to do next if he's not here."   
  
Logan nodded then looked up at the hay loft. "You think he might be up there?" he asked.  
  
Jean looked up and focused the flashlight on it. She shook her head and said "I think if he was, we'd know already. It's too rickety."   
  
They split up and started looking, neither saying what each was thinking. What if Bobby wasn't there? What if they didn't find him? What then?  
  
Logan sniffed the air, trying to pick up Bobby's scent. At first, his nostrils filled with the smell of musty old barn, old hay, rotting wood. He concentrated and shifted through the scents. Bobby had to be in the barn. If Bobby wasn't, what would he tell Rogue?   
  
There.   
  
Very faint but the scent of a male human drifted towards Logan's keen nose. He flipped on his flashlight and let his nose lead him. In the very last stall, at the opposite end from where he started, Logan held his breath and poked the flashlight in.   
  
His nose had not failed him, illuminated by the beam lay Bobby, curled up into a ball.  
  
"Jean!" he bellowed, crossing the stall in three steps. He knelt down by Bobby, pulled off his gloves and checked for a nonexistent pulse.  
  
*Damn, damn, damn.*   
  
"C'mon, Ice Pop," he muttered at Bobby, uncurling the teen's stiff body. "yer supposed to freeze other stuff, not yerself." He turned to yell for Jean again but she was already at his side.   
  
She set down the First-Aid bag she carried, tugged off her gloves and checked for a pulse before Logan could tell her there wasn't one. But instead of checking at the jugular, like he had, Jean checked Bobby's pulse at his wrist.  
  
"Um...Jean," Logan started to say but was waved off by her.   
  
"Open the First-Aid bag, take out the blankets and start wrapping him up." Jean said, her fingers still on Bobby's limp wrist.   
  
"Jean, I checked, he's got no pulse." Logan said.  
  
"Logan, just do what I ask. I'll explain in a moment." Jean replied.  
  
Logan shrugged and reached for the First-Aid bag. He looked up a moment later and was startled to see a smile on Jean's face.  
  
"Jean, what..." Logan started again but was interrupted by Jean.  
  
"Bear with me for a few more moments." Jean said. She tinkered with a portable oxygen machine for a moment, pouring water from bottle into a holding container on the machine. She slipped an oxygen mask over Bobby's nose and mouth, and flipped a switch, the machine coming to life with a low hum. She shined a light into Bobby's eyes, then pulled a thermometer out of the First-Aid bag and slid it into his ear.   
  
Logan, finished wrapping Bobby up, sat back on his heels and said "Jean?"  
  
Jean looked up from the thermometer and said "He's not dead, Logan, he's got hypothermia."  
  
***************************  
  
//Scott, we've found Bobby in the barn. Go get the stretcher from the jet.// Jean sent a mental message to Scott, who relayed the message to Storm. And by the time Scott made it to the barn, Storm had warmed the stall up considerably. He set the stretcher down next to Bobby and tried not to think of how still the teenager was.   
  
//Relax. Bobby should be just fine once he gets warmed up.// Jean told him through their mindlink.   
  
"How long do you think he's been here?" Scott asked.  
  
"Two hours, maybe three." Jean replied. "Not that long."  
  
"But long enough," Logan said.  
  
"Not really but that doesn't matter now that we're here." Jean replied. "Logan, help me put him in the stretcher. The moment he's stable enough to be moved, I want to go but be very gentle. If he's jostled too much, it could kill him."   
  
Logan's eyes widened for a moment before picking up the teenager. After Bobby was settled and the blankets wrapped around him, Jean took his temperature again.   
  
"Getting there," she said. She looked up and around at the blank faces surrounding her and knew it was time for a mini-lesson on human physiology.  
  
"When the human body gets really cold, all the blood is shunted to the major organs, heart, lungs, etc. to keep them going until the body can warm up again. As the body warms up, the cold blood that had been down in the legs and arms starts to recirculate and rewarm but it's still cold. If the person gets moved too suddenly or too soon, the cold blood gets dumped into the heart, shocking it out of its regular beat and usually causing a heart attack. The longer we wait, the higher Bobby's temperature goes and the better it is for him. A lot of the time, there isn't a choice to wait but thanks to Storm, we can."   
  
Storm smiled to show she had heard but remained focused on her task.  
  
Jean, her lesson done, checked Bobby's pulse and rearranged the blankets around him. "Any questions?" she asked.  
  
"How'd this happen?" Logan asked. "How'd he wind up out here?"  
  
"I don't know." Jean replied. "But when he wakes up, we can ask him."  
  
Scott, quiet until then, voiced the unspoken thought among them. "He might have been grabbed by someone like Stryker but was able to escape. Whoever it was, they might still be lurking around. I know I'm stating the obvious but we need to get out of here as soon as possible. The longer we stay, the bigger a target we become."  
  
Jean nodded but said "I'd like to keep from moving Bobby for another half-an-hour, if possible. After then, we'll just have to take the chance."  
  
Scott nodded. He looked at Logan and said "Come on, between the two of us, we can set up a decent perimeter."   
  
Logan nodded and left with Scott.  
  
**************************  
  
Rogue paced the hallway in front of the hanger doors. She knew that the longer the rest of the team were gone, the lesser the chance they had of finding Bobby alive and her throat tightened at the very thought. The first boy she had actually been able to kiss without almost killing him and now, he could be dead. Tears sprang into her eyes but she blinked them away.   
  
She also knew why she hadn't been allowed to go with the others. Being so emotionally attached to Bobby would only be a liability if he was being held hostage. She knew that the others would not stop searching until they found Bobby and that if he was hurt, Jean would do all she could to save him but all that knowledge didn't make the waiting any easier.   
She paced and waited and paced and waited. The Danger Room was just down the hallway. She could always go in there and work off some of the nervous energy but Scott had warned her and Bobby that they weren't to go in there unless they had an adult with them.   
  
She sat down on the cold tile floor and rested her head on her knees, her gloved hands clenched in front of her. This wasn't like all the other times when she had accidentally touched someone. Then, she could console herself with the knowledge that it was a mistake and remember not to do it again, she had no such knowledge this time. Bobby was probably dead and she would never have a chance to say 'Good-bye'.   
  
That time, the tears came before she could stop them.  
  
Professor Xavier needn't have been a telepath to locate Rogue. All he had to do was follow the sounds of her sobs. He rolled down the hallway and stopped in front of her. He didn't like seeing his students in pain but, with teenagers, pain was a part of every day life.   
"Marie?" he asked, softly.  
  
She looked up at Professor Xavier and tried to stop her tears but couldn't. He took a handkerchief from his coat pocket and handed it to her. She took it and dabbed at her eyes.   
  
"I'm sorry I'm such a mess." she mumbled, looking down at the floor.  
  
"Marie, there is a big difference between 'being a mess' and being worried about someone." Professor Xavier said to her. "I worry about all of my students all the time. Made all my hair fall out."   
  
Rogue looked up at the Professor's joke and almost smiled. "Thank you, Professor Xavier."  
  
************************  
  
Fifteen minutes later, the rumbling of the X-Jet's engines echoed through the mostly empty lower hallways of the mansion. Rogue stood up and looked toward the hanger doors expectantly. Professor Xavier, having already sent a message to Jean about Rogue, waited next to her. The hanger doors opened and Logan walked through alone, the doors sliding shut behind him.  
  
Rogue's eyes bounced from the grim look on Logan's face to the neutral one on Professor Xavier's and new tears flowed down her cheeks. Logan pulled her into his arms and started talking quietly to her, his body blocking her view of the hanger doors. The doors opened again and Professor Xavier watched Jean and Scott carry Bobby into the Med-Lab.   
  
//How's Rogue?// Jean mentally asked Professor Xavier.  
  
//She's quite unhappy. That was very wise to have Logan come out first.// Professor Xavier replied.   
  
//That was Logan's idea.// Jean replied. //He knew how upset she would be.//   
  
Professor Xavier looked up at Logan and nearly smiled. Despite his claims to the contrary, Logan had a big heart and truly cared for Rogue. He tried to do his best by her.  
  
//When can Rogue see him?//   
  
//Not for a couple of hours at least. I need to get his temperature up. Seeing him like this would only upset her further.//  
  
//Understood.//  
  
Professor Xavier cleared his throat and eyed Logan. Without a word, Logan picked up on the Professor's train of thought.  
  
"Rogue, darlin', I know you want to see Bobby right now but ..." Logan started.  
  
"I'd just get in the way." Rogue said, her voice muffled by Logan's bulk. She looked up at   
him. "I'm not stupid, Logan. I just want to know if he's okay."  
  
"He'll be fine." Logan told her, praying that he was right.   
  
*****************************  
  
Due to the lateness of the hour, Jean was more than surprised to have the doors of the Med-Lab open and admit twelve-year old Micah Winslow, one of the newer students, dressed for bed. He paused in the doorway, then walked very slowly into the room as if he expected to be chased out at any minutes.  
  
"Micah? Is there something wrong?" Jean asked him.  
  
He jumped guiltily at the sound of her voice and turned to look at her. "I came to see Bobby, Dr. Gray."  
  
Jean stood and came around her desk to block Micah's view of Bobby. "Bobby's asleep. You should be too."  
  
Micah gnawed at his lower lip but did not speak. He had taken an instant liking to Bobby, following the older boy around the school and pestering him about anything. Bobby, amused by the attention and having gone through hero worship once already with his younger brother, took Micah under his wing, so to speak. Micah reveled in the attention and had really started to come out of his shell. Now, it seemed as if he was retreating back into himself, holding himself away from Bobby, to protect himself from any pain that might happen if Bobby did not recover.  
  
Jean bent down in front of him and said "Micah, when you start dozing in Ms. Munroe's class tomorrow, don't expect an excuse from me."   
  
"Is he going to be okay?"   
  
"He'll be fine. Now, you need to go back to bed before Logan wonders where you've gone to."   
  
"He's already checked on us, he won't be back for another 15 minutes." Micah told her.   
  
*Well, well, well. I'll have to let Logan know that the children are paying more attention to him than he thinks.*  
  
"Micah, you need to go back to bed. Now."  
  
He looked down at the floor, turned and walked back toward the door. He stopped and looked at Jean over his shoulder, looking like he wanted to say something but couldn't. He left as quietly as he came.   
  
Jean shook her head and rubbed her eyes. Most of the children came to the school with such unbelievable baggage, abandonment, abuse, homelessness and it was very hard to convince them that they were safe, but Bobby had reached Micah and Micah just worshiped him for it.  
  
She checked Bobby's vital signs and took his temperature again. 93.5, up from 90.2 when he was found in the barn. "You hang in there." she told him. "There are an awful lot of people out here pulling for you."  



	3. Chapter 2

Mid-morning of the next day, Bobby stirred and started to come around. Jean stopped her paperwork and came over to the side of his bed. His eyelids fluttered then opened all the way. He stared up at Jean, relief mixing with confusion on his young face.

Jean smiled at him and said "Good morning."

Bobby blinked and tried to speak but the oxygen mask got in the way and he did not have the strength to move it.

Jean removed the mask for him and asked "How are you feeling?"

Bobby licked his lips and whispered "Cold." He blinked again and said "Kinda weird for me to be saying that."

"Not really. Just because you can freeze things doesn't mean you can't freeze yourself."

Bobby smiled at Jean's comment. "How long have I have been here?" he asked.

"Not long." Jean replied. She checked his vital signs and took his temperature. It was almost back to normal. Bobby would be just fine.

He licked his lips again and tried to swallow.

"Thirsty?" she asked.

"Yeah." he said

Jean held out her hand and a glass slid across a small table next to the bed. She picked it up and held it to his lips, holding his head with one hand and the glass with the other.

He sipped at the warm liquid but made a face at the sweet taste. After few sips, he was done and Jean set the glass down on the table. His eyes moved around the room, touching on an object here and there, like he was trying to convince himself that he really was safe.

"You're a popular guy. You've already had visitors." Jean told him.

"Rogue?"

"No, Micah. Rogue will be here just as soon as classes are over for the day."

Bobbie blinked. "Micah?"

Jean nodded. "He's very concerned."

"He's a good kid." Bobby's voice faded as sleep claimed him again.

True to Jean's word, Bobby's first visitor of the afternoon was Rogue. She came straight to the Med-Lab, books in hand. Jean sat her at a small table near Bobby where she could work on her homework and be near him. His second visitor was Micah, minus his school books. Again, he paused in the doorway, then slowly walked into the room.

"Hey, Micah." Rogue said to him.

"Hi." Micah said, looking surprised that Rogue spoke to him.

"Good afternoon, Micah." Jean said to him. "You'll be pleased to know that when Bobby woke up this morning, I told him you were here to see him."

Micah darted a glance at Rogue, who did not look up from her work, then, visibly, relaxed enough to say "Really?"

Jean repeated Bobby's words and got a genuine smile from Micah. "You're most welcome to stay but you will need your schoolwork. You're not just going to sit here."

Micah shook his head and darted another look at Rogue. "I...I...wouldn't want to...get in the way."

"You're not in the way." Rogue said. She still smarted from how Micah had seemingly wandered in to the Med-Lab when she had been kept from the same place but she couldn't really blame him. He was worried about Bobby too. Plus, he was younger than her, so, she had to be the bigger person, no matter how much it sucked.

Micah shook his head. "I...I can come back." He turned and practically ran from the Med-Lab.

Rogue looked after him, then looked at Jean. "Did I do that?"

Jean shook her head and said "No, you didn't. He upset about Bobby that's all."

Rogue shrugged her shoulders and went back to her schoolwork.

Bobby woke up just after Micah's hasty departure. He looked over and saw Rogue standing next to him.

"Hey." he whispered.

"Hey. Everyone's askin' about you." Rogue replied.

"Yeah?" Bobby said.

"Feeling a little better?" Jean asked, joining Rogue at Bobby's bedside.

Bobby nodded and said "Can I get some water?"

A glass levitated from a plate warmer near him and settled into Jean's hand.

"That is not water." Rogue said, looking at the green liquid.

"It's warm, diluted, Jell-O. Believe it or not, this is better for him than water, at the moment. You want to try this on your own?" She asked Bobby.

Bobby nodded and, after raising the bed up, Jean handed him the glass, then went back to the ever-present paperwork waiting on her desk.

"Sip slowly, don't gulp." Jean instructed.

Bobby nodded and did as he was told.

"Micah was here." Rogue said. "He's really freaked out about you."

"Jean said he'd been in here last night." Bobby replied. The Jell-O felt so good sliding down his throat that he wanted to empty the whole glass at once but didn't have the strength to do so.

"What happened? How'd you wind up where you did?" Rogue asked Bobby.

Bobby shook his head and said "I don't really remember. About all I do remember is walking down a road and wishing I had a cellphone. That and I needed to find a place out of the wind but it gets kinda fuzzy after that." He sipped at the Jell-O, surprised that such a simple conversation could wear him out.

Rogue nodded and let him be. There was plenty of time for finding out what happened, later.

"I didn't freak you out too much, did I?" Bobby asked her.

She shrugged. "Stuff happens. I'm just glad that you're going to be all right."

"Like you could get rid of me that easily." he said.

She smacked him on the shoulder. "Just be happy you're sick, if you weren't..."

"Children..." Jean said, not looking up from her paperwork.

Bobby and Rogue smiled at each other and Rogue felt a weight lift from her heart.

It was all fault and he didn't know how to fix it. It was his fault that Bobby was so sick and stuck down in the Med-Lab. It was his fault that Rogue had been so upset and that Logan was in a bad mood. It was all his fault. He wanted to apologize to Bobby and Rogue and Logan, really, he did. But he didn't. He couldn't. He was too afraid. Afraid of being throw out of the school. Afraid that Bobby and Rogue and anyone else would never speak to him again. Afraid of being dropped back into an ugly, ugly life he'd thought he had left behind. So, he said nothing and retreated further from the rest of the school. That way, it wouldn't hurt as much when he was found out and thrown out.

As his strength returned, Bobby grew restless and bored. Especially after Jean shooed Rogue out around dinner time and he couldn't even have a conversation with another teenager.

"I can get your schoolwork down here, if you need something to do." Jean told him. She made her hourly check of his vital signs and was pleased with his rapid recovery. The boundless recuperative powers of teenagers never failed to amaze her.

He made a face and said "That's okay. It's not going anywhere."

"I might even be able to get a tv down here but the schoolwork would come with it." Jean said. She bit her lip and hoped that Bobby didn't see the grin she was trying to hide.

He made another face. "You just don't want to have to wait on me when I get back to the classroom."

"Truer words were never spoken. Of course, I'm quite happy to still have you, period." Jean said. She slid a stool over and sat down next to Bobby. "You scared everyone silly. Even Logan was speechless."

"Sorry." Bobby muttered, his eyes cast downward. "I thought I was doing something nice for another student, one of the new guys. Guess not."

Something in the back of Jean's mind stirred to life and, suddenly, she had a horrible suspicion of who was behind Bobby's near freezing.

"You want to talk about it?"

He shrugged. "There's not much to say."

"Try me." Jean said. At the same time, she sent a mental message to both Scott and Professor Xavier to come down to the Med-Lab.

"I don't want to get the kid in trouble. He doesn't know you guys the way I do. He might freak and run away" Bobby said, his eyes still downcast.

"Bobby, look at me." Jean said. When he did, she said "We need to know what happened so we can keep it from happening again. Whoever it is, they need to know that this kind of behavior is unacceptable but that mistakes can and do happen."

The Med-Lab's doors slid open and admitted Scott and Professor Xavier.

Bobby looked at Jean and asked "You brought in reinforcements, huh?"

Jean smiled and replied "Do you really want to have to repeat this story?"

"Where's Rogue?" Bobby asked Scott.

"Upstairs, watching a movie. Logan and the other kids are keeping her occupied." Scott replied.

He nodded. "If I tell you, don't be too hard on him. You gotta promise you're not gonna get too mad. He's new here and..."

"Bobby, we are not about to discipline another student without cause." Professor Xavier said. "You will have to trust us on that."

"I do." He sighed and said "All right. The whole thing started out as an errand I told one of the new kids I'd run for him."

So, Bobby laid out the whole ugly story. How he'd headed for the bookstore but never made it because he had been grabbed by unknown hands, dragged into an alleyway and drugged into unconsciousness. How he'd woken up, gagged and bound with voices talking over him and how he had escaped by freezing the bindings around him and scaring away his captors. After that, it was easy to get out of the dilapidated factory where he'd been held and run as far and as fast as he could.

"They took my jacket and my shoes. Like that was going to stop me." Bobby said. He watched the adult's faces for some sort of reaction to his tale. "Don't get too mad at him. He didn't know any better. Neither did I." he added.

"It's admirable for you to want to take on all the responsibility but you're both at fault." Professor Xavier said.

"You know we don't have a problem with any of you going into town but you're supposed to tell one of us. Or did you forget that part?" Scott asked.

Bobby shrugged. "I didn't know it was a trap until I heard one of them muttering 'That kid better be right about his family'. I wouldn't have gone if I did."

Professor Xavier shook his head and said more to himself "Of all the reasons, why didn't I see this?"

"Because even you're not perfect, Charles." Jean said to him. She looked at Bobby and switched back into doctor mode. "I think that's enough excitement for one evening. He needs his rest."

Bobby didn't argue. He might have felt a 1,000 percent better than that morning but he still felt like someone had run over him with a truck.

"I'll be back in a moment." Jean said to Bobby.

She walked out into the hallway with Scott and Professor Xavier.

"Unbelievable. I'm assuming you'll want to talk to him immediately." Scott said to Professor Xavier.

Professor Xavier nodded. "Bring him to my office."

After Professor Xavier left, Jean looked at Scott and said "You're not going to like what I'm going to say but go easy on him, okay? "

Scott quirked an eyebrow at her, his question unspoken.

"Humor me." Jean replied. She kissed him on the cheek and sent Scott on his way before returning to the Med-Lab.

Twilight was spreading across the grounds of the Xavier School as Scott hiked up the stairs to leading the student bedrooms. Darkness came quickly in the winter and it with a multitude of places to hide. It would be better for all concerned to end this matter before darkness fell and they spent another evening searching for another student in the cold and the dark.

He knocked on a half-closed bedroom door and poked his head around it.

"Daniel, where's your roommate?" he asked.

Daniel, a skinny 15 year-old with a mop of dark hair, looked up from his homework and shrugged. "Don't know. I haven't seen him since dinner. What'd he do?"

"Disappeared on me." Scott replied, turning and walking away from the bedroom. He walked back downstairs and headed for Professor Xavier's office. There was a much faster way to find the errant student then physically searching the mansion but he never got that far. The object of his search came out of the library, right in front of him, book in hand.

"Micah." Scott called to the boy "I've been looking for you."

Micah's head snapped up, his eyes grew wide, then he turned and bolted down the hallway, the book dropping from his fingers.

"Oh, hell." Scott muttered. Why do they always have to run? He broke into a run himself and chased after Micah.

/Jean, Micah's run off on me, he's got a good head start. Get Kurt. We're in the lower hallway near the front door./

Micah ran as fast as he could down the hallway, looking for the first door leading to the outside. So what if it was cold and dark? He didn't deserve to be warm and dry with what he'd done. The hallway curved to the left,then emptied into a sunroom with a door leading to a porch and the outside. If he could get to the porch, he'd get away. He did not see nor did he hear Kurt appear in the sunroom, then reappear at the porch door, blocking his escape.

Micah charged into Kurt at full speed knocking him backwards into the door, which popped open, spilling both of them onto the porch. Micah, terrified, fought against Kurt but the teleporter was stronger and more agile and simply wrapped Micah up in his arms, holding him tight. Scott came puffing up and looked down at Kurt sprawled on the floor with Micah in his grip.

"Micah, why did you run?" Scott asked, crouching down next to him.

Micah's response was lost in the sobs that started to shake his body. Kurt looked up at Scott as if to ask 'What is going on?'

"Long story." Scott said to Kurt. "It has to do with Bobby being in the Med-Lab, doesn't it, Micah?" Scott asked him.

Micah shook his head. "It's my fault." he wailed. "I'm the reason Bobby's so sick."

Behind him, Scott could sense the growing crowd of curious students and he just knew that Rogue was in the crowd somewhere. If Rogue found out what was going on, things would get ugly, quickly. Fortunately, Logan had followed the students and was now herding them away.

"C'mon, guys, ya' don't need to be here. Yer just gettin' in the way. The excitement's over." Logan said to the kids.

Thank you. Scott sent a silent thank-you to whichever saint was listening.

"All right, Micah. We can do this one of two ways. You can get up, come with me and talk to Professor Xavier or you can be carried and you'll wind up talking to him anyway." Scott said.

"I'm not a baby. I don't need to be carried." Micah said, through his tears.

"Scott, may I have a moment?" Kurt softly asked Scott.

Scott thought for a moment then nodded and stepped back.

"I do not know what this is about, but I can see you are afraid of something," Kurt said to Micah. He moved to a bench, sat down and coaxed Micah to join him. Kurt put an arm around the boy's shoulder and tried to comfort him.

"I did something bad," Micah sobbed. "I nearly got a friend killed!"

Kurt did not respond immediately, like Scott, he had seen the fear in Micah's eyes and on his face and knew he had to tread carefully.

"Have faith, child. Sometimes we are tempted by evil to sin. Look at me - these marks are angelic symbols - one drawn for every sin I have made,"

"That's a lot of sins," Micah replied, staring at the markings on Kurt's face and body.

"Yes, it is. One mark for every sin. Each time I sinned, I prayed to God for forgiveness. We are not perfect. We make mistakes. The only one who is perfect is the Creator. He has already forgiven you."

"But, will the Professor forgive me?"

"Do not be afraid, _mein liebes Kind_. Herr Xavier is a good man, he will not hurt you." Kurt smiled gently.

Micah nodded, stood up and hugged Kurt. He sniffled away the rest of his tears and turned to face Scott.

"Okay, Mr. Summers, I'm ready."

Scott held out his hand to Micah and nodded at Kurt. "Thanks, Kurt."

Kurt nodded in return. "You are welcome." He said to Scott.

Kurt watched Scott and Micah head back down the hallway, then shook his head. How could someone so young, be so unhappy?


	4. Chapter 3

Micah was silent most of the way to Professor Xavier's office. Despite Mr. Wagner's advice, he knew the Professor would take one look at him and out he would go. The only question was go where? He had nowhere else to go. Tears started to roll down his cheeks the closer he came to Professor Xavier's office.  
  
Scott felt Micah's shoulders start to shake under his hand. He sighed, stopped and crouched down in front of Micah again. What ever Professor Xavier came up with in the way of punishment would be nothing compared to what Micah was doing to himself.  
  
"Why'd you do it?"   
  
"I....I was afraid. Jonathan said...he said he knew where I lived and that if I didn't do what he asked....he would get me thrown out of here. Looks like he did."  
  
Scott shook his head. Micah hadn't spent a lot of time on the streets but he'd been there long enough to know he didn't want to go back for ANY reason. Scott had known terror like that and knew what it could do to a person.   
  
"Micah, Professor Xavier is not going to throw you out."  
  
"He's not?" Micah's face lit up.  
  
"No, but that doesn't mean you're not in serious trouble."  
  
Micah nodded. "And?  
  
"We'll discuss that with Professor Xavier."   
  
Micah brushed away the tears. "I understand."  
  
Waiting for them in Professor Xavier's office were the Professor, Jean and Logan.   
  
"Have a seat, Micah." Professor Xavier said to him.  
  
Micah sat and waited, his eyes on the floor.  
  
Scott took a seat next to Jean and whispered to her "Who's with Bobby?"  
  
"Hank." she whispered back.  
  
"Micah, look at me please." Professor Xavier said.   
  
Micah raised his tearstained face to look at Professor Xavier, his entire frame trembling with fear.   
  
Professor Xavier sighed. He did not like seeing his students quaking in fear, when he did, he saw it as a personal failure.   
  
"Micah, child. What possessed you to put yourself and Bobby in such danger?"   
  
"Jonathan said he knew where I was and if I didn't want to end up back with him, that I would do what he said."  
  
Professor Xavier frowned and looked over Micah's head at Scott. //How did this 'Jonathan' discovered where Micah was?//  
  
Scott shook his head. //I have no idea. Micah was a runaway as far as I knew.//  
  
"When did he tell you this?" Professor Xavier asked Micah.  
  
"A couple of days ago. He called and said I'd been misbehavin' again, that I left without tellin' him and that if I wanted to stay, I had to do what he said." Micah looked over at Scott, then back at Professor Xavier. "I wanted to tell you, both of you but I couldn't. I thought you'd throw me out if you knew what I'd done." His head dropped and the sobbing started anew.   
  
Another round of glances were exchanged, then Professor Xavier said to Scott "The phone records will need to be studied, see where 'Jonathan' called from. And then, we'll be speaking with the police."  
  
"You've done so much for me." Micah said, through his tears. "I didn't want to help him but I didn't know what else to do." He looked up at Professor Xavier. "I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll take whatever punishment you give me, just don't throw me out, please!"  
  
Logan snorted and got whacked by Jean.   
  
"What was Jonathan after?" Professor Xavier asked.  
  
"Money, what else?"   
  
"And how did he know that Bobby's family had money?"   
  
More tears flowed down Micah's cheeks. "He didn't. I...I told him. He told me to pick someone from a family with a lot of money and he wouldn't believe me when I said half the kids here didn't have a family. So, I picked Bobby."   
  
Scott closed his eyes and shook his head.   
  
"I know he goes off with you guys sometimes, so I figured he could handle whatever Jonathan might throw at him. He said he wasn't goin' do anything to Bobby. Just hold on t' him long enough to get some money outta his folks, a coupla of days at the most. I'd have told Jonathan t' go t' Hell, ifIn I thought he'd hurt Bobby. But when Bobby didn't show for dinner and then you guys disappeared and I heard the jet, I knew I'd screwed up big time but I couldn't tell anyone, no one would believe me. No one ever has."  
  
"Is that why you came down to the Med-Lab last night? To make sure Bobby was okay?" Jean asked.  
  
Micah nodded. "I've seen dead bodies before and I wanted to make sure Bobby....Bobby wasn't...." He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence and buried his face in his hands.   
  
Jean got up from her seat and took Micah in her arms, letting him cry himself out. When his sobs finally trailed off, Jean handed him a handkerchief Professor Xavier passed to her.  
  
"It's my fault." Micah whispered, his throat raw from crying. "I shoulda told Jonathan to drop dead but I couldn't and now..."   
  
Professor Xavier shook his head in disbelief. The cruelty adults subjected children to never failed to stun him. He would take great pleasure in making sure 'Jonathan' was put away for a very long time.   
  
"Micah, I want you to listen to me very carefully." Professor Xavier said to him. "You've done a terrible thing and what's worse, you tried to cover it up. I am disappointed in your lack of judgment. I know you haven't been here long but it's been long enough to know that you can talk to anyone at anytime."  
  
Micah nodded.  
  
"Because you showed such poor judgment, you will be punished but you will not be 'thrown out'."   
  
"Whatever you say, Professor Xavier." Micah whispered.  
  
"To begin with, you will go down to the Med-Lab with Dr. Grey and apologize to Bobby. Then, you will come back up here and we are going to talk. You will be assigned extra chores and your privileges will be suspended for two weeks. Do you understand?"   
  
Micah nodded. He was happy just being allowed to stay.  
  
//We can go now, if you want.// Jean looked at Professor Xavier.  
  
He nodded.   
  
Jean stood and took Micah's hand. "Come on, Bobby will be thrilled to have someone younger than 25 visit."  
  
The two reached the office door before Micah turned and looked back the Professor.  
  
"Thank you, Professor Xavier." he said, his heart a little lighter then when he came in.  
  
*******************************  
  
"I am going to find that bastard and rip his head off!" Logan growled.   
  
*At least he waited for Jean to leave. She would not appreciate his sentiments even if she agreed with them* Scott thought.  
  
"Logan, brute force is not going to solve this problem." Professor Xavier said to Logan.  
  
"Why not? No head, no problem." Logan said.  
  
Scott chuckled and said "Never thought I'd say this but I agree with Logan, in theory, at least."  
  
Logan eyed Scott for a moment and a smile, almost, curved across his lips.  
  
"Gentlemen, I appreciate that you want to see this man punished and, personally, I agree with you. However, ripping the man's head off is not going to help Micah nor is it going to deter others who are doing the exact same thing to children like Micah. As tempting as it is to met out our own punishment, once we find this man, we must hand him over to the authorities." Professor Xavier's voice was firm and brooked no argument.  
  
Logan snorted, stood up and said "If ya' think I'm gonna let this piece of scum get away with terrorizin' Rogue and the others, ya' nuts!" He stomped from the room, slamming the office door behind him.  
  
"He took that well, don't you think?" Scott asked Professor Xavier.  
  
"At least he opened the door on his way out and didn't rip it from its hinges." Professor Xavier replied.   
  
"What now?"  
  
"Now? Now, we find this *Jonathan* and make sure he never terrorizes another child ever again."   
  
******************************  
  
"No, Bobby, the speed of light is not how fast it takes Rogue to get from her room to the bathroom. And I'm telling her you said that." Dr. Hank McCoy said to Bobby. Like Jean, Hank was amazed at Bobby's quick turn-around.   
  
Bobby smiled. "She'll never believe you."   
  
"You think? You want to place a small wager on that?"  
  
Before Bobby could answer, the doors to the Med-Lab slid open and in walked Jean and Micah.   
  
"I heard you through the door, Hank. You should be ashamed of yourself, contributing to the delinquency of a minor." Jean told him.  
  
"Only if he had agreed, which he didn't." Hank responded. "Good evening, Micah. Come to visit Bobby?"   
  
Micah nodded. "I have something to tell him."   
  
"Go on then, before he goes to sleep."  
  
Micah nodded again and, slowly, approached Bobby's bed.   
  
Bobby propped himself up on one elbow and offered a smile to Micah. "I keep being told that you keep comin' around. What, you forgot your homework and need a good excuse?"   
  
Micah shook his head, then looked back at Jean. She nodded her head.   
  
Micah took a deep breath and started. "I'm the reason you're here. The errand I wanted you to do wasn't an errand. Jonathan wanted a rich kid to kidnap and told me to pick one and when I couldn't think of anyone I thought of you and then you went off and got cold and sick and now you're here and it's all my fault and I'll understand ifn you don't want to talk to me again I didn't think he was going to hurt you or I woulda told him to drop dead I just didn't think and then you got hurt and....I'm sorry, please forgive me." The longer he talked, the faster the words came until he just ran out of breath. He looked up at Bobby and waited.  
  
Bobby blinked but said nothing, his brain still trying to process what Micah had told him. 'Rich kid'? Jonathan? He'd been lured? By Micah? What?  
  
"If you needed money, all you had to do was ask." Bobby finally said.  
  
Micah hung his head. "I'm sorry. I...I didn't think...Please don't hate me."   
  
Bobby stared at Micah for a long time before he laid down and rolled over on his side away from Micah. Micah, panic stricken, looked back at Jean. Jean motioned for him to come over to her.   
  
"He hates me." Micah said to her, trying to keep the tears out of his voice.   
  
"No, he doesn't but he's confused and upset and that's going to take some time to overcome." Jean told him. "Can you honestly blame him?"  
  
"No ma'am." Micah shook his head. "I should go see Professor Xavier now."  
  
"Okay, he'll be waiting for you."   
  
Micah nodded and left the Med-Lab, his feet dragging on the floor.  
  
Hank looked at Jean and said "Mind filling me in?"  
  
"It's a long story. After he's asleep, we can talk." Jean replied, nodding in the direction of Bobby.   
  
Hank caught her meaning and nodded. He walked over to Bobby's bed and checked on the teenager. Bobby's eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and steady. If he was only acting like he was asleep, he certainly fooled Hank, who moved away from the bed.   
  
****************************   
But Bobby was not asleep, far from it. After Hank walked away and he heard the adults move to another part of the lab, he opened his eyes and rolled onto his back. How could he sleep after hearing Micah's confession? The kid had nearly gotten him killed!   
  
And for what?! Money? Was that all Micah saw when he looked at Bobby? After all Bobby had done with Micah and for him?   
  
Bobby closed his eyes for a moment, the hopeful look on Micah's face burned into his memory. How could Micah expect forgiveness from him so easily? Did Micah think that a simple apology was going to make up for what he had put Bobby through? What about the others? Like Rogue? She'd have a fit if she ever found out.  
  
Bobby closed his eyes again and tried to relax. Micah was a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. He didn't know what trouble he would be causing. He'd seemed sincere.  
  
Nothin' doing. Try as he might, Bobby could not let go of the anger welling up inside. Because of that kid, he was nearly died a very unpleasant death. Now, he was stuck down in the Med-Lab for who-knows-how-long, eating warm Jell-O and the occasional bowl of soup because his stomach couldn't handle anything else. He'd have a mountain of make-up work to face when he got back to class and, most importantly, he was forced to stay away from Rogue. He couldn't see her for more than a few hours a day!   
  
Just what the Hell had Micah been thinking!?  
  
"He wasn't thinking. He was reacting." Jean said near Bobby's ear. He looked over to his left and saw Jean standing there, alone.  
  
"Hank went to get dinner." She answered his unspoken question. "He'll be back."   
  
Bobby nodded.   
  
"You want to talk about it?"   
  
"The last time you said that, that's what started all this." Bobby said, a trace of irritation in his words.   
  
Jean shrugged and said "Be angry. I would be but don't let it eat you up. For what it's worth, Micah is sincere in his apology and he is quite upset."  
  
"Good."  
  
Jean did not have a response to that, so, she said "I will be over at my desk if you need anything."   
  
Bobby watched her go, then closed his eyes and tried to sleep but sleep was a long time in coming. First, he had to calm down enough to sleep and that took a very, very long time.  
  
***************************  
  
Rogue heard the whispers at breakfast the next morning. In a school as small as The Xavier School nothing stayed a secret for long. After breakfast and before she went to her first class of the day, she went to the one person she hoped could tell her the truth.  
  
Bobby.  
  
The doors to the Med-Lab slid open and Hank greeted her. She returned the greeting and went over to Bobby's bed. He was sitting up, eating breakfast, or at least what passed for breakfast for a person in his condition, oatmeal.   
  
Rogue made a face when she saw it.   
  
"Don't laugh too hard. It's the first solid thing I've had to eat in days." Bobby told her. He saw the look on her face, sighed and set the spoon down. "You've heard."  
  
"Then it's true? Micah's the one who put you here?" she asked.  
  
He nodded. "Says he did it 'cause his...guardian threatened to take him away if he didn't get some money for him."   
  
Rogue scowled. "That's no excuse."   
  
"No, it's not."   
  
"You don't seem to upset."  
  
"Should've seen me yesterday when he told me. I was mad then and I'm mad now but I can't do a whole lot down here, can I?"  
"I can."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"I'll think of something." Rogue said. She turned on her heel and made for the doors.   
  
Hank stepped in front of her and stared down at her. "Rogue, you will leave Micah alone or you will be in just as much trouble as he is."  
  
Rogue glared him. "And? He nearly got Bobby killed! Doesn't that matter to anyone!?"  
  
Hank winced. "Lower your voice, I can hear just fine. Yes, it does matter and it is being handled _by_ the adults. Don't get in the middle of it. Understand?"  
  
Rogue did not reply.  
  
*Lord, save me from overly emotional teenagers.* "Since you have such problems with this, why don't you go speak to Professor Xavier? His is the final decision." Hank suggested.  
  
"I can't do anything with you standing in front of the door." she replied.  
  
Hank quirked an eyebrow, then stepped to the side. Rogue stalked out of the Med-Lab and disappeared into the elevator, hopefully on her way to see Professor Xavier.  
  
Bobby watched the whole discussion with undisguised interest. He was still mad at Micah but less so, now that he had seen how upset Rogue was. Maybe he *had* been a little too hard on Micah. Maybe not.  
  
Hank came over and surveyed Bobby's progress with breakfast. He frowned at the not-even-half-eaten bowl.  
  
"Keep eating. When Dr. Grey comes in, I want to tell her something positive." Hank told Bobby.  
  
"Okay, I positively hate oatmeal." Bobby replied.  
  
"Cute. You want to try that one on Dr. Grey?"  
  
Bobby frowned but picked up the spoon and dug in.  
  
****************************  
  
Rogue's irritation at Micah lasted all the way to Professor Xavier's office door. With her books in one hand, she raised her hand to knock but couldn't. What if the Professor got annoyed at her? What if he said it was none of her business about what would happen to Micah? What if....?  
  
"Rogue," Professor Xavier said through the half-closed door, "there's only a couple of minutes before class starts. What do you need?"  
  
"I need to know what's going to happen to Micah." she said, pushing open the door and walking into the Professor's office.   
  
Professor Xavier was at the moveable chalkboard writing down a physics equation when she came in. He stopped writing and came over to her.   
  
"Why? Is it your intention to met out your own punishment?" he asked.  
  
Rogue could not answer right away, not with Professor Xavier looking at her in that *way* of his. She looked away.   
  
"He nearly killed Bobby." she said, holding on to the anger that had propelled her into his office.  
  
"Yes, he did. He knows that and he will be punished for it." Professor Xavier replied, calmly.   
  
"And?" she demanded.  
  
"You don't know about the punishments that I can give out. Pray you never do." Professor Xavier replied with a tight smile.  
  
"But..."  
  
Professor Xavier held up a hand to forestall any further statements, then said "Before you came here and learned about your powers, didn't you do things that you wished you hadn't?"  
  
Rogue flushed, thinking back on the three boys she had nearly killed simply by kissing them. "Those were accidents. I didn't mean to...it's not the same!"   
  
"Yes and no. What Micah did was not accidental but he did it out of fear and fear, as I'm sure you've discovered, is a very powerful motivator. What made you leave your family?'  
  
"I was afraid..." she stopped and looked at Professor Xavier. "It's not the same."   
  
Professor Xavier did not disagree with her, instead he said "I want you to think on this today during school. If you were in Micah's position and you were threatened with the only place you ever called home being taken away, what would you do?"   
  
Rogue looked down into Professor Xavier's pale blue eyes and absolutely hated him for being right. 


	5. Chapter 4 The End!

"Honestly, this place is becoming a regular Grand Central Station." Hank commented to Jean when the Med-Lab's door slid open and Micah walked in. He looked over at Bobby, then at Hank and Jean.   
  
"Don't be so antisocial, Hank. You know you love all the attention you get when you're here." Jean replied. "Good morning, Micah."  
  
"If I was the subject of the attention I would but this parade of people is not for me but for young Mr. Drake over there. If I was any younger, I would be jealous." Hank said. "Good morning, Micah."  
  
"Good morning, Dr. Grey. Good morning, Dr. McCoy. May I see Bobby?" Micah asked.  
  
Jean looked over Micah's head and caught Bobby's eye. He shrugged.  
  
"Go on but be quick about it. You're going to be late to class as it is." Jean told Micah.  
  
Micah walked over to Bobby's bed and looked up at the older boy. "I'm really sorry. Please, please forgive me. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I wish...I wish I could take it all back but I can't. I'll do anything to make things right."   
  
Bobby watched Micah's face very carefully as the younger boy spoke. He wanted to stay mad at Micah, wanted to hold on to the anger. The longer he did, the less time he had to be mad at himself for going off half-cocked. Micah wasn't the only one responsible for his extended stay in the Med-Lab.   
  
"I understand what you're saying, Micah and I know you're sorry but it's going to take me a while to forgive you." Bobby told him.  
  
Micah dropped his eyes from Bobby and nodded. "I...I hear you. I...I just don't want you to hate me."  
  
Bobby made a face and said "I don't hate you but I don't like you at the moment either."  
  
Micah nodded again. "I understand." He turned to leave but Bobby reached out and grabbed Micah by the wrist.   
  
"Micah." Bobby said, letting go of Micah's wrist. "Just don't do something dumb trying to 'make things right', you got that? You wouldn't like it down here. There's no tv and the food's terrible."   
  
Micah met Bobby's eyes and mumbled "Yeah, sure, whatever." His eyes stayed on Bobby for a long moment, then he turned and left.  
  
*******************************  
  
"You wanted to see me, Professor Xavier?" Micah said.   
  
"Yes, Micah, come in. Have a seat. I do not want to keep you from lunch. Cook will be very unhappy with me if I do, but I did have some questions that only you can answer." Professor Xavier said. He looked at the office door and it swung shut noiselessly.   
  
Micah sat down and waited. He knew what the questions had to be about, Jonathan. Just like all the other questions over the past two days.   
  
"If you were to set a trap for Jonathan, what would that trap look like?"   
  
Micah blinked. "You're asking me?"   
  
"Yes. No one here has the insight into Jonathan's mind that you do."   
  
Micah frowned. "What's 'insight' mean?"  
  
"You know how he thinks." Professor Xavier supplied.  
  
"If I was to set a trap....Jonathan likes money, he always wants more of it, he never has enough. Any trap would have to have a lot of money with it."  
  
Professor Xavier nodded.  
  
"Maybe if I can get a hold of him and tell him that I've got another kid for him to snatch or that I know where he can get his hands on a lot of money, he'll come out from wherever he's hiding. I know he's got to be ticked at me for letting Bobby get away."   
  
The casualness with which Micah mentioned 'snatching another kid' sent a cold shiver through Professor Xavier. Micah was far too young to be knowledgeable on such things but he was.  
  
"I know where he stays, if I could get a message to him then he could call and then he'd come out and then he'd be caught. You could use me to lure him out!" Micah blurted out the last part with a smile on his face.   
  
"That is something to think about." Professor Xavier told him, leaving out the tiny detail of NOT using children as bait. "Is there any particular method you used to use to contact him when you were with him?"   
  
Micah shook his head, then his eyes widened. "He got a pager just before I left. He was real proud of it but I don't remember the number."  
  
"Would you remember what Jonathan's last name is?" Professor Xavier asked. Even the smallest piece of information could be used to find and trap the man.  
  
Micah shook his head again. "He wouldn't have it under his own name anyway."  
  
"That's all right. You've given me exactly what I was looking for. You've been a great help."  
  
"Really?" Micah's face lit up at Professor Xavier's words. "What else can I do?"  
  
"Nothing at the moment. However, when I need your help, I'll send for you. Go on to lunch. Give Cook my apologies." Professor Xavier told him.   
  
"Yes, sir." Micah slid out of the chair and walked from the room.   
  
//Jean, after classes are finished for the day, come to my office and bring the others. I think I may have a way catching Micah's guardian.// Professor Xavier sent out the mental message to Jean, then turned to complete the equations on the blackboard next to him.  
  
****************************   
  
The end of school came quicker than anyone had expected and, as soon as the children were released, the adults made their way to the Professor's office. Scott arrived first, followed by Jean and Storm and, finally, Logan. Kurt was asked to keep an eye on the some of the children, especially Micah, just in case.   
  
After the Professor related what Micah had told him, he asked Scott "How easy would it be to trace Jonathan through his pager without knowing his last name?"  
  
"Depends. If he bought it legally, it can be traced based on where and when it was bought. Illegally? That's a bigger problem. There's no real place to start looking for the stolen ones." Scott replied.   
  
Logan snorted.  
  
Scott looked over at him and said "You got a suggestion, Logan?"  
  
"Yeah, Micah said he knew where this guy stayed, work at it from that angle and skip the pager. Yer gonna spend a whole lotta time looking for something that's not there. If ya can't find him that way, then go back to the pager thing."   
  
Scott frowned, he hadn't gotten quite that far in his thinking and it annoyed him that Logan had.   
  
"Okay, once we know where the guy is, do we call the cops?" Jean asked.  
  
"Give me some time with him and I'll come up with somethin'." Logan replied, smiling a truly evil smile.  
  
  
"Logan, as much as it might make you feel better, beating the stuffing out of the guy isn't going to solve anything." Jean replied.  
  
"Yes, it will. He'll think twice before pulling that kind of *%&*^ on some other kid." Logan said.  
  
"I can't believe this but I'm agreeing with Logan, again." Scott said, earning him a LOOK from Jean. "What are the police going to do?"  
  
"All right." Professor Xavier said, holding up his hands. "We've gone over this already. Beating the man senseless will accomplish nothing in the long run and that is what we need to focus on. Yes, Logan, beating him to a bloody pulp would be quite satisfying, I'm sure but what then? Are you going to keep watch on this character for the rest of his life? No. What is needed is his removal from society."  
  
Logan smiled again.  
  
"Through legal methods," Professor Xavier added. "We must also take into account what will be best for Micah. He has witnessed enough depravity, he needn't see any more especially at the hands of people he trusts." Professor Xavier looked pointedly at Logan and Scott.  
  
***********************  
  
Once again, it was the phone that brought Micah and Jonathan together. That very night, just after dinner, the phone rang and it was for Micah.  
  
With not a little trepidation, Micah took phone from Jenna, a telekinetic like him, whispering to her " Could you get Mr. Summers for me? Please?"  
  
Jenna eyed him for a moment, then nodded.   
  
Micah took a deep breath, then spoke into the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"I am NOT happy with you." Jonathan's irritation came across the phone lines clear as a bell.  
  
"I told you it wouldn't work. Bobby was on to me from the start." Micah replied, his stomach tightening at the sound of Jonathan's voice. He looked around the room and prayed that Scott would show up soon.  
  
"It would've worked if you had told me he was a mutant freak like you."   
  
"I tried to tell you but you were too busy spending the money before you had it." Micah felt some of the old fear climb up his spine. He swallowed and refused to give in.  
  
"Shut up, boy! Now, I'm gonna give you one more chance to make things right or I'm comin' to get you and no one's gonna get in my way."   
  
Scott came into the room at a dead run at that moment and Micah pointed at the phone 'Jonathan' he mouthed. Scott nodded and withdrew, looking for another phone to listen in on.   
  
"Are ya' listening to me, boy?!" Jonathan's voice rose in anger.   
  
"Maybe I don't care, ya' ever think a' that? You think you can get me?" Micah snapped back. In the background, he heard a faint click as Scott picked up a receiver nearby.  
  
"Feelin' pretty brave, are ya? How brave you gonna be when your precious school finds out you helped kidnap one a' the other kids? You think they're be so understandin' then?"  
  
"I know they will. They actually care about me."  
  
Jonathan laughed and laughed. "You know what? After I'm done with you, I gonna leave ya where I found ya', on the side of the road."  
  
Micah gulped but took a deep breath and remembered what Kurt said '_Have faith, child....We are not perfect. We make mistakes...The Creator has already forgiven you._'  
  
//Micah, tell Jonathon to meet you near the New Salem Dinner tomorrow evening around six and you'll give him enough money to go away and leave you alone.// Jean's voice echoed in Micah's head.   
  
He nodded, even though Jean wasn't there to see him. "If I give you some money, will you go away and leave me alone?"   
  
"Maybe, depends on how much money we're talkin' about."  
  
"Meet me tomorrow night around six near the New Salem Dinner and I'll give you enough money to leave me alone."   
  
"You sure you got that much?" Jonathan asked, an evil chuckle following his words.  
  
"You want the money or not?"  
  
"All right, 6 o'clock tomorrow. But you cross me boy and there's nowhere you'll be...."   
  
Micah cut Jonathan off and hung up the phone. He stood there for a moment, than another, then sat down on the floor, shaking. Jean came in and knelt by his side, followed by Scott.   
  
"Micah?" she asked him.  
  
Micah looked at Jean and smiled. "I did it. I stood up to him. He can't scare me anymore."  
  
Jean nodded and said "You did a great job. You thought on your feet, you sent for an adult and you helped Bobby."   
  
Micah's smile grew brighter. "I did. Can I tell Bobby? Is it too late?"   
  
Jean looked at her watch, then at Micah. "Sorry, he's asleep by now."  
  
"That's okay. You think he'd want to see me tomorrow?"   
  
"Sure."   
  
Micah nodded and scrambled out of the room, headed for his bed, a bed that no one could take from him now.   
  
**************************  
  
5:58 p.m. Micah looked at his watch, again and stamped his feet. Despite his warm clothing, the cold was seeping through and all he wanted was to go back to the mansion and warm-up but he couldn't go back to the mansion. Not yet, anyway. Jonathan hadn't shown up yet and until he arrived, Micah could do nothing but wait.  
  
At least, he was out of the wind, sheltered in the shadow of The New Salem Diner . He leaned against the building and blew on his hands. He kept expecting a familiar fear to knot up his insides just as they always had when Jonathan was around or was coming to get him. Nothing so far. His eyes swept the length of the alleyway, starting at the diner. Nothing out there. Nothing that could be seen, that is.   
  
Lurking in the shadows of the alley were Storm, Scott, Jean and Logan, all waiting for the chance to nab Jonathan, Logan taking the position closest to Micah. If he squinted, Micah thought he could just pick out tips of Logan's hair.   
  
"Well, don't you look all warm and comfy?" Jonathan's voice echoed off the alley's walls and made Micah jump.   
  
Micah looked in Jonathan's direction and wished he hadn't. He looked terrible, Of course, he never had looked too good to begin with. His clothes threadbare and worn, did not fit his tall, thin frame. His eyes were sunken into their sockets, a scraggly beard covered the bottom of his face with a layer of grime covered the top half and the stench wafting from him made Micah's nose wrinkle.   
  
"Think you've got a pretty good thing goin', don't ya?" Jonathan said, advancing on him. Instinctively, Micah backed up, the familiar fear finally appearing. He backed up until his back was pressed against a stack of trash and old boxes.   
  
*_Have faith, child...We are not perfect..._* Kurt's words rang in Micah's head again and he was not afraid any longer.   
  
"You want the money or not?" Micah asked Jonathan.  
  
"How much you got?"   
  
"Enough. More than you would've gotten from Bobby. If I give you this, you'll leave me alone."  
  
"What if I don't?"  
  
"You want the cops on your case for kidnapping?"  
  
"You think they'd believe you?"  
  
"Over you? In a heartbeat. I told you kidnapping wouldn't work."  
  
"It woulda worked if not for you and your screw-ups."  
  
"Me? How's this my fault?"  
  
"You never told me he was some mutant freak."  
  
"Like you would've changed your mind."  
  
"Don't smart mouth me, boy, you'll wish you hadn't."   
  
"What are you gonna do? Kidnap me?"  
  
"Don't tempt me. I've done it before."  
  
"You don't scare me any more, Jonathan."  
  
"I don't?"   
  
Jonathan moved quicker than Micah could react, his hand lashing out and smacking Micah across the face. Micah stumbled backwards into the trash and boxes and tasted the blood on his lip. Jonathan loomed over him, grabbing him by his coat and hauling him to his feet.   
  
"Where's the money? Where is it?!" Jonathan snarled, the smell of alcohol on his breath. He pushed Micah against the wall and starting searching Micah's coat.   
  
A snarl came from behind Jonathan and suddenly, his feet were lifted off the ground and he was flying through the air, landing in the street in a heap.  
  
"Logan, you're not supposed to toss the guy into the street. We don't want all of New Salem as witnesses." Jean came out from her spot and made her way over to Micah.  
  
Logan grunted and stepped out into the street. Jonathan tried, desperately, to scramble out of Logan's reach but he didn't get far. When Logan collared him and dragged him to his feet, he started to plead and beg for his life, Micah now forgotten.   
  
"Yer too ^&$%* lazy to steal so you get kids to steal for you? What kind of creature are you?" Logan snarled at Jonathan, throwing him up against the wall of the restaurant.  
  
"Please....just let me go...I'll...I'll never bother the kid again, I swear...please, don't kill me." Jonathan babbled.   
  
Logan pinned him to the wall, made a fist and held the claws inches from Jonathan's throat. "Yer a waste o' human being. You don't deserve to live."  
  
"Please..." Jonathan whimpered.   
  
Logan sniffed the air, wrinkled his nose and looked down at the growing stain on Jonathan's pants. "Not so brave now, huh?"  
  
"Enough, Logan." Storm laid her hand on Logan's arm.   
  
Logan looked at her, then over his shoulder to see what the other's thought. Jean was still talking to Micah but Scott stood there, watching.   
  
"I think you've gotten your point across." Storm said.  
  
Logan's scowl deepened but he relaxed his hand and let go of Jonathan. "You even *think* of moving, bub...."  
  
Jonathan nodded and folded into himself.  
  
"Now, what? Dump him on the cops?" Logan asked.  
  
"That's the idea. They'll get him for assault, theft, attempted murder, attempted kidnapping and my personal favorite, contributing to the delinquency of a minor." Scott walked around Logan and squatted down next to Jonathan. "And you're going to write all that down, aren't you?"   
  
Jonathan nodded.   
  
*************************  
  
Five sets of eyes watched from across the street as the cops pulled up to the dinner, lights flashing, siren going, in response to a 911 call reporting a break-in. Instead of a burglar, they found Jonathan, seated on the doorstep, hands bound behind him, a written confession tucked into the pocket of his ratty jacket.  
  
The cops stared down at him for a moment, then one cop pulled the confession out of the pocket and started to read. He whistled when he was finished and handed it to his partner before going back to the patrol car and opening the patrol car's back door. By then, his partner was finished reading and was shaking his head. He tucked the confession into the pocket of his coat, then hauled Jonathan to his feet and stuffed him into the patrol car. Moments later, the police car pulled away and the five pairs of eyes came out of the shadows.   
  
"You watch way too many 50's movies. That was just plain corny." Logan said to Scott.  
  
"Corny it may be but it worked, didn't it?" Scott replied.   
  
"He's not going to be back any time soon, is he?" Micah asked.  
  
Logan squatted down in front of Micah and said "Nope. He's gonna be in jail for a long time."   
  
Micah smiled and said "Good, bastard deserved it."   
  
Even Logan was surprised at Micah's words but he didn't show it. Instead, he took Micah's hand in his and led him back to the car, with the others following behind.  
  
************************  
  
"Bobby? Can you help me with my math?" Micah came up to the older boy in the library of the mansion.   
  
Bobby stopped reading the magazine in front of him and looked at Micah. In the week since Jonathan's collar by the police, Micah had gone out of his way to try and get back into his good graces. When Bobby was released from the Med-Lab, Micah was waiting for him. Whatever Bobby wanted, Micah got. If Bobby forgot his books, Micah retrieved them. If he overslept, Micah would come and wake him up. Micah even offered to do some of Bobby's homework, despite the age difference and grade level. And yet, Bobby did not appear to have let Micah off the hook, publicly anyway.   
  
Way down deep inside him, Bobby had already forgiven Micah, he just hadn't told Micah yet. He didn't know if he ever would. Bobby had never been more scared then when he was trying to stay warm in the barn and he had never been more relieved to open his eyes and see Jean looking at him. He had trusted Micah and that had almost killed him. It would be a very long time, if ever, before he blindly trusted anyone again.   
  
Micah stood waiting, patiently, math book with notebook paper sticking out, clutched in his hands.   
  
*Oh, Hell. The kid needs help. I can be mad later.*  
  
"All right. Pull up a chair and let me see what the deal is." Bobby said to Micah.  
  
Micah's face lit up like a Christmas tree. He dropped the math book on the table and scrambled into the chair next to Bobby. He flipped open the book to the problem section and showed the assignment to Bobby.  
  
Word problems.   
  
*Not my favorite.* Bobby thought but he looked over Micah's work and began to explain the next problem.   
  
"You going to do something dumb like that again?" Bobby asked later, referring to the failed kidnapping plot.  
  
Micah vigorously shook his head. "Nope. I'm never gonna do that again."   
  
"Good. If you ever do, *I'm* coming after you. You got that?"  
  
Micah nodded. "Thanks, Bobby."  
  
"Whatever."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Websites used:  
  
www.hypothermia.org ---------------- This site has the best comment on hypothermia that I've ever read. 'Not dead, until WARM and dead.'  
  
www.hypothermia-ca.com (res-q-air) ----------- This is where I got the oxygen mask that Jean uses in the first part.  
  
www.sarbc.org (hypo.htm)l --------------- Use this link too for more information on the oxygen mask Jean used.  
  
I also typed the word 'hypothermia' into Google's search engine and used what it came up with.   



End file.
